‘I wish I had the manpower,’ officials said after July 1 law banned US cities from adding speed cameras – new 2-year wait

A NEW state law is restricting cities from implementing speed monitoring cameras.

Police and local authorities are speaking out against the new highway law after neighborhoods were just days away from installing the technology on their streets.

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State lawmakers approved a new requirement that all cities go through the Iowa Department of Transportation before installing speed capture cameras.

The law requires municipal authorities to go through a two-year application process before they can use automatic ticketing devices.

Drivers will also have a standardized ticketing system with prices set by the state.

But local community members are speaking out, saying it has a greater impact in areas with higher speeds and few police officers.

Police in small communities said they are already struggling to keep up with speeding drivers.

“I don’t have the manpower to sit here all day, every day,” De Soto Police Chief John Sparling told the CBS affiliate. KCCI.

Chief Sparling is one of two full-time officers on the police team.

Highway 169 runs through the city. Some vehicles are cautious when entering roads with red lights.

However, Chief Sparling said he observed other drivers reaching top speeds of at least 100 mph.

“They fly here,” he added.

Dubuque, Iowa Mayor Brad Cavanagh said his city was just days away from installing speed cameras on its roads.

Now, authorities have been forced to abandon the speed bust program, according to the local ABC affiliate. KCRG.

“If we make decisions based on really good information and really good discussions, and we do it responsibly, we should, as a city, be able to move forward with this,” Cavanagh told the station.

“It’s frustrating because we still have this need. We still have a police department that asks for this, but the legislature has taken away the police department’s ability to enforce this.”

How to fight a speeding ticket

According to a legally reviewed post, there are five effective strategies for fighting a speeding ticket if it was issued improperly.

1. If stopped and a ticket is issued, drivers can discuss or dispute the driver’s personal opinion. When issuing a speeding ticket, the police officer is required to write his opinion and come to an “objective” conclusion. If the fine was written based on this judgment, it can be challenged. An example would be if you were traveling at 75 mph in a 65 mph zone because other people were traveling at the same speed, you could argue that it would be more dangerous to travel at 65 mph.
2. You can challenge the police officer’s presentation of evidence. If you’ve been ticketed for something like running a stop sign or making an illegal U-turn, you can’t contest it if a police officer saw you, but you can take things to court like eyewitness accounts, diagrams, or photos.
3. Argue that the ticket was issued due to an “error of fact”. This is complicated, but a “mistake of fact” is a mistake made by a driver over a situation that was beyond their control, or if a driver legitimately did not know they were violating the law. For example, you were driving in two lanes because the lane markers were so worn out that you couldn’t see them.
4. You could say the circumstances justified his direction. You could say you were speeding to pass a possibly drunk driver or avoiding an accident by quickly changing lanes. However, the argument will not work if there is evidence that you continued to speed after passing.
5. Similar to the above, it could be argued that speeding was necessary to avoid harm. The key is to argue that if you weren’t speeding, you or someone else could have been injured.
6. Consult a traffic lawyer if all else fails. Many have free consultations to decide whether or not there is a case.

Source: Find Law

Dubuque city officials just completed a study that found several streets had consistently fast drivers.

But state lawmakers have vehemently opposed speed cameras, according to KCRG.

State officials reportedly called the cameras a money grab.

The law does not impact cities that already have speed capture devices monitoring drivers.

In fact, another law in the state’s major cities will make drivers pay more for speeding violations.

Six Iowa cities – Davenport, Cedar Rapids, LeClaire, Muscatine and Des Moines – recently passed a law that allows state police to issue automatic tickets to drivers caught going 10 mph over the speed limit.

Fines range from $75 to $500, depending on speed.

Fines will double if the camera captures a car speeding through a construction zone.